Tuesday, January 15, 2013

The Skinny

In Utah, there is a company called Gephardt Approved. As I understand, other companies pay them to get reviewed and "approved" all based on the name of Bill Gephardt, a man who claims to be honest and respectable. When someone I know had a bad experience with one of their "approved" companies and emailed Gephardt about it, the Gephardt Approved team emailed his complaint on to the "approved" company with an added message to something to the effect of: "here, you deal with this".

The Problem

The "approved" company my friend had been dealing with was small and his complaints were first given to the head of the "approved" company, but when they rudely argued that they had done nothing wrong, he reached out to the Gephardt team to do what they promise on their website:

Seeing as to how Gephardt handled this complaint and my friend hoping they would be his advocate, I began to wonder why they did absolutely nothing about his issue. I couldn't help but feel that they are a company that is just worried about getting paid by businesses regardless of customer complaints. It doesn't help their case when this isn't the first time a company has continued to be Gephardt Approved despite other customer complaints. The question to ask is: Why would a company that gets paid by businesses, fire his own customers? That is bad business and doesn't make sense. Gephardt Approved is not even approved by the Better Business Bureau.

To be Fair

OK, so maybe it was an uneducated employee who handled my friend's request and maybe Bill Gephardt himself would have handled it differently, but in the end my friend was rudely treated by both the "approved" company and Gephardt Approved.

Conclusion

I now avoid businesses that say "Gephardt Approved" because to me, that leaves a bad taste in my mouth. As we all get to do, you get to decide what this means to you.

9
comments:

I went with a window company because they were Gephardt approved. I won't state their name but they are located in Spanish Fork, Utah and they install "Windows" in this "World" ;)Their Gephardt Approved "craftsmanship" will speak for itself. I welcome anybody to come by and look at the horrible, messy and incomplete job that was left behind. The owner's daughter works for him and answers the phone - very rude and unprofessional and every bit as argumentative, stubborn and condescending as her father. Gephardt Approved must be a scam. I'm happy to arrange a time for anyone to come look at what I was left with. Contact me at wehavebeenscammed@outlook.com

Glad to hear I am not the only one with similar issues. After the family mini van's transmission went out we took it to the deal. Once there they had said they would not be able to diagnose the problem without tearing it apart to find out was wrong. The total cost to do so and then put it back together would be $1800 plus parts. Having not had a transmission issue before I had thought that was more than it should be. After calling around I found a Gephardt Approved transmission specialist who claimed they could diagnose the issue for under $60 and would pay for the tow if I had the work done with them. Throw in a 5 year warranty on the transmission work and it sounded like a great deal. Once there I was told that their diagnosis determined it was a bad trans chain, but that they would not be able to tell if that had caused other issues until they opened it up, which would cost me an additional $477. Still better than what the dealer was quoting me. I went ahead and gave them the approval. That's where things got weird. After doing so I was told I had many different issues with the vehicle, the biggest was that the radiator had a leak that was leaking a large amount of coolant into the transmission. Having just had my transmission flushed three weeks prior by the dealer I called them irate, because according to the transmission place the dealer could not have done the flush since the fluid was so bad. The dealers service manager and his transmission tech were at the new place within 15 minutes of the call to inspect the transmission. Once there it was easily determined something was fishy. They provided to the service manager the sample of the trans fluid they had done their Glycol test on, it was definitely bad. The problem was that the tray of transmission fluid from my van which was still under it on the lift was no where as bad. In fact, it still looked basically new. The dealership decided they would cover a large portion of the cost of the transmission to be repaired at their place, just in case it was due to their negligence. Upon having the vehicle back in their shop, it was found that in fact there was nothing wrong with the radiator, and it did not need to be replaced (as speculated by the service manager earlier when seeing it at the other shop).

Now with Gephardt, once letting them know of the obvious bait and switch with their certified business, they did not bother to inspect it. Rather they just emailed their merchant a copy of my email, and then defended them with their response which never once even mentioned the radiator. They did so condescendingly, talking down to me. Guess what? Gephardt approved means jack crap to me now and I would suggest to others they disregard their "approval" when making any decisions on who you are going to do business with.

Someone needs to do a Get Gephardt on Gephardt himself. I had problem with a couple plumbing companies on there. The third one finally was amazing. The other two were completely dishonest told me the only solution would cost thousands of dollars. The third plumber not only did it for about $100 and fixed it for as long as the pipes last, which should be very very long. I emailed Gephardt and I got a response from him that these companies didn't rip me off and that's all that he is looking for in a company. He doesn't care that they tried to rip me off he only cared if they did after the fact. Nice to know. Around the same time I called a mortgage refinane company. That company strung me along from September of 2012 through early July of this year. Finally the broker told me to just call someone else. Needless to say that since September a child custody battle changed my financial situation enough that I couldn't qualify any longer. I wrote Mr Gephardt over a week ago and have not heard from him. Last time I wrote him it took only a few days for him to respond.

What Gephardt is doing is truly another fake business that rips off Utah citizens. He charges to give out his endorsements. I'll give you my own example. Last year, I turned to a law firm that I saw on a TV ad, they were Gepthard approved to help consumers with IRS back tax problems. When I met with the firm (Gilland Law Firm, PC), they turned up to be an extremely high pressure, hard sell outfit,wanting me to sign a contract right then and write a check on the spot for $10,000 to solve my tax problem with their "Gold" plan approach. Fortunately, I refused and told them I needed to do some research first. I then found on my own, a very honest and experienced Tax attorney firm to deal with and fix my problem for under $2,000. Even better, their office was 1 mile from my home, vs in North Davis County. Can anyone say "highway robbery". This firm that advertised as "Gephardt Approved" continued to call me, send me marketing materials and never give up, even after I told them more than once that their prices were 5 times higher than a better, highly ethical competitor that used zero pressure and no fear tactics to sell me.This is a true, real life example of Gephardt endorsing an abusively overpriced, pushy and unethical business as "Gephardt Approved." Actually, I think "Gephardt Approved" is an elaborate extortion racket as described above. I'm sure he was paid well for the endorsement. I wouldn't trust his endorsements any further than I could throw the guy! Beware and Be Smart! He is the real scam!

The reality is, businesses pay to be approved. I was working at a roofing company when the call came from Bill himself promoting his services. It would have cost my employer anywhere from $500 to $5000 a month depending on what marketing product he sold you. He's not approving anything but the check you write him. He does not do a thorough investigation. That's just bogus. We thanked him kindly but said NO THANKS. Anyone can be approved if they pay him enough. It's a scam and he should be exposed for the huckster he is. Snake oil salesman at best.